This invention relates to a system in which the signals of an elevator, especially the call signals thereof are transferred by the use of microcomputers.
The hall of an elevator is equipped with hall buttons for registering hall calls, hall call registration lamps for indicating that the hall calls have been registered, a position indicator for indicating the position of a cage, etc., while the cage is interiorly equipped with destination buttons for registering the cage calls of destination floors, cage call registration lamps for indicating that the cage calls have been registered, a position indicator, door opening and closing buttons, etc. Consequently, the number of signal lines for transferring such signals increases with the number of floors, and it becomes very large in a multistoried building.
A system which improves the defect is, for example, one disclosed in the official gazette of Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 58-69685. As one-chip microcomputers have come into wide use and become less expensive in recent years, it has become possible to substitute the microcomputer for a memory device mentioned in the literature and to further reduce the number of signal lines. This measure will be explained with reference to FIGS. 6-8. FIG. 6 is a block circuit diagram of the general construction, FIG. 7 is a detailed diagram of a portion VII in FIG. 6, and FIG. 8 is a waveform diagram of a transfer signal.
Referring to FIG. 6, numeral 1 designates a master station which is disposed in the control panel of a machinery room and which is constructed of a microcomputer including therein a signal serial-transfer interface (hereinbelow, called "UART") 2, several tens ports, etc. The UART 2 transmits and receives signals to and from a slave station 53 which is constructed of a microcomputer installed in a cage 51 as will be stated later. Numerals 11-19 indicate slave stations which are disposed in the hallmanipulation panels of respective floors, and each of which is constructed of a microcomputer similar to that of the master station 1. Position indicators 21-29 are respectively connected to the slave stations 11-19. Likewise, hall buttons (as to which up buttons and down buttons are not distinguished) 31-39 are connected, and hall call registration lamps (as to which up calls and down calls are not distinguished) 41-49 for displaying the registrations of hall calls are connected. Numeral 52 denotes a cage manipulation panel which is disposed in the cage 51, and on which destination buttons, cage call registration lamps, door opening and closing buttons, etc. (with no numerals assigned thereto) are arranged. The slave station 53 is disposed in the cage control panel 52 and is similar to each of the slave stations 11-19, and a position indicator 54 is connected to the slave station 53. A signal bus 55 connects the master station 1 and the slave stations 11-19, and a ground line 56 corresponds to the signal bus 55. A signal line 57 connects the UART 2 of the master station 1 and the slave station 53, and a ground line 58 corresponds to the signal line 57. Numerals 61-69 denote signal branch lines which are connected to the signal bus 55 by the use of connectors (not shown) or the like, and which are connected to the slave stations 11-19 of the respective floors. Incidentally, although various power source lines are laid from the control panel to the cage manipulation panels 52, only the lines concerning the signal transfers are depicted here.
Referring to FIG. 7, symbol RxD denotes the reception terminal of the slave station 13, and symbol TxD the transmission terminal thereof. A transmission terminal line 70 is connected to the transmission terminal TxD. Shown at numerals 71 and 72 are transistors for transmission. The transmitting/receiving portion of each of the other slave stations 11, 12, 14-19, and 53 is constructed similarly to the above.
Referring to FIG. 8, numerals 81-90 designate serial data items which are transmitted and received by asynchronous transfer. The data item 81 is a start bit, the data items 82-89 are data of 8 bits, and the data item 90 is a stop bit.
The prior-art signal transfer system for an elevator is constructed as stated above. First, there will be explained a case where the master station 1 transmits a signal and where the slave station 13 receives the signal.
Addresses for the master station 1 and the slave stations 11-19 are respectively set in, for example, a memory. The master station 1 to transmit a signal, initially sends the address of any of the slave stations 11-19 to receive the signal. Now, in a case where the address of the slave station 13 is "13" in the hexadecimal notation and where the master station 1 sends data of "01" to the slave station 13, the master station delivers the address "13" (with the bits 82-84 at an "L" (low) level and the bits 85-87 at an "H" (high) level) to the signal bus 55 in the format as shown in FIG. 8, and it thereafter delivers the data "01" (with the bits 82-88 at the "L" level and the bit 89 at the "H" level). In response to the operation of the master station 1, all the slave stations 11-19 receive the address signal of "13". However, each of the slave stations 11-19 is programmed so as to start the reception of the data only when the received address agrees with its own address. Therefore, only the slave station 13 starts the reception of the data and accepts the data "01" from the signal branch line 63 and through the reception terminal RxD.
Next, there will be explained a case where the slave station 13 transmits a signal and where the master station 1 receives the signal.
In a case where the address of the master station 1 is "01" and where the slave station 13 transmits data of "11", the slave station 13 operates similarly to the above, to deliver the address "01" from the transmission terminal line 70 to the signal branch line 63 and the signal bus 55 and to thereafter deliver the data "11". More specifically, when the transmission terminal line 70 is at the "L" level, the transistor 71 is nonconductive, and hence, the transistor 72 becomes conductive, so that the signal branch line 63 becomes the "L" level. On the other hand, when the transmission terminal line 70 is at the "H" level, the transistor 71 becomes conductive, and hence, the transistor becomes nonconductive, so that the signal branch line 63 achieves the "H" level. In this way, the data is delivered.
The same applies to cases where the master station 1 transmits or receives signals to or from the other slave stations 11, 12, and 14-19. In addition, the transmission/reception of a signal between the master station 1 and the slave station 53 of the cage 51 is effected through the UART 2 as well as the signal line 57.
Subsequently, processing will be explained in the case where a call has occurred in the hall of any floor.
It is now assumed that the hall button 39 connected to the slave station 19 has been depressed for a hall call. The master station 1 is polling the slave stations 11-19 at a fixed cycle, and each of the slave stations 11-19 is so programmed that it can send the hall call signal of its own to the master station 1 only when it is designated. After the slave station 19 has transmitted the hall call signal of its own to the master station 1 in this way, a hall call registration signal indicating that the hall call signal of the slave station 19 has been accepted is transmitted from the master station 1, and the slave station 19 receives the hall call registration signal. In such a manner, the transfers of the hall call signals of the respective floors are completed. In order to avoid a lighting delay ascribable to the polling cycle, the hall call registration lamp 49 is illuminated by the slave station 19 at the point of time of the occurrence of the hall call without awaiting the reception of the hall call registration signal from the master station 1.
The same applies to a cage call which is generated by the cage manipulation panel 52, and the cage call registration lamp is illuminated by the slave station 53 at the point of time of the generation of the cage call.
With the prior-art signal transfer system for the elevator as described above, when the hall call has occurred by way of example, the corresponding one of the hall call registration lamps 41-49 is illuminated at the time of the occurrence of the hall call without awaiting the transmission of the hall call registration signal from the master station 1. Therefore, if the hall call signal transmitted from the corresponding one of the slave stations 11-19 is not transferred to the master station 1 due to a transfer fault or the like, there arises the problem that merely the corresponding one of the hall call registration lamps 41-49 is lit up and that the cage 51 does not arrive in spite of a long wait. Meanwhile, with a measure wherein the corresponding one of the hall call registration lamps 41-49 is illuminated after the transmission of the hall call registration signal from the master station 1, the delay of the lighting attributed to the polling cycle or a program cycle is sometimes involved, and this causes users to feel anxiety.